“The Klan was born here and we hope to have its funeral here” -George Key, president of the Chattanooga NAACP, on the impact of civil lawsuits targeting the Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee

On April 19th, 1980, three Ku Klux Klan members wielding a shotgun rode down historic 9th street and opened fire on five black women: Viola Ellison, Lela Mae Evans, Katherine O. Johnson, Opal Lee Jackson and Mary Tyson. When an all-white jury acquitted the three Klan members for their crime, Chattanooga erupted in four nights of rioting in protest accompanied by further attempts at violence by the Klan. Not deterred by the unfair jury verdict, the five women went on to be plaintiffs in a historic civil lawsuit. In 1982, the federal courts ordered the Klan to pay the women $535,000 on account of the terror attack. This case created the legal strategy for dismantling the Klan across the country in the following years.